Our Town

Review By: Carey Purcell
CareyPurcell@TheCinemaSource.com

Being encouraged to live in the moment can entice a variety of reactions. One of the favorites is eye-rolling, perhaps a humming of “No Day But Today” from the musical Rent , or perhaps an earnest reflection of one’s current place in life. After viewing the production of Our Town , currently in performances at the Barrow Street Theater, it was the latter that resulted after witnessing such an earnest, humble and honest production of a life.

A staple of theater, academic, amateur and professional, Thorton Wilder’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play examines the happening of the small town Grover’s Corner. Performed in three acts, named Daily Life, Love and Marriage and Death and Eternity, the show is built around the relationship of the neighbors George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Narrated by the Stage Manager, this performance takes place with no setting or props other than two tables, the actors clad in contemporary, everyday clothing.

First performed in 1938, Our Town is often associated with nostalgia for small-town life or the simple romance of two childhood sweethearts falling in love with the boy or girl next door. This simplistic, no-frills production does not evoke such wistful longing but rather a melancholy reflection on the actions of everyday life and their actual meaning.

At times, this production his a little too close to home. Perhaps it’s the physical proximity of the actors, who do not perform on a stage but instead on the floor, surrounded by the audience members’ chairs. At times, they are mere inches away. Or maybe it’s that the performances are so genuinely authentic. The script of Our Town does not call for Shakespearean monologues or heart-stopping romantic encounters. Instead, it requires actors who are able to make everyday life interesting enough to watch for hours on end, and these actors are able to do exactly that.

Performed by this talented, understated cast, the simple acts of stringing beans or doing algebra are actually interesting. Or maybe it’s the narration. David Cromer, who also directs this production, plays the Stage Manager, who dictates exactly what happens in the life of Grover’s Corner. He is a matter-of-fact, non-nonsense man, just a touch sarcastic and the perfect guide to take us through the lives of these characters.

The pivotal action of Our Town centers around Emily Webb (Jennifer Grace) and George Gibbs (James McMenamin), next-door neighbors who eventually marry. Emily is an intelligent, painfully earnest girl who anxiously asks her mother one afternoon if she is pretty enough to warrant attention from anyone. George is a bashful, good-natured boy who is just slightly dim-witted. The two share a innocent attraction that they don’t exactly know what to do with, but as they share help with algebra homework it is apparent the two will join the “almost everyone” in Grover’s Corner who get married. Subsequently, the panic the two both experience just before being married, is also honest, almost painfully so.

A wedding ...